Magic Without Magic
by irishileana
Summary: Lily showed me a new concept, one I’d never thought about before. She gave me magic . . . without magic. Which is why on that summer night, about fifty million times after our first, I was taking Lily on a special date. One that would be truly magical.


Author's Note: I just realized that I've not posted everything on here. And let's face it. They give excellent reviews.

Just a little drabbley fluff fic, short scenes that you could like.

This was written specifically for a challenge on the Final Prophecy (details listed below). Ever since I got into fanfiction, I wanted to write a Lily/James story . . . but I never really got inspired. When I saw this challenge, however, I just knew what I was going to do. I think you might enjoy it. It was fun to plan.

WARNING: Mild silver references!

Oh, and Allison? Thanks. Thanks so much for putting so many muggle things into that list. Really.

Especially with the CD. Because, of course, at this point the compact disc had not been invented yet.

_Summary of the challenge:_

_In light of Valentines Day, the pairing of your choice is going out on a date. However, we need to make this a bit more original. The story needs to include:_

_Bouncy Balls_

_Radio_

_Coke Can_

_CD_

_Jewelry Box_

_Book_

_Rules: _

_(1) Must be related to Harry Potter._

_(2) At least +2000 words._

_(3) No M Ratings or higher._

_(4) Ends on March 31, 2008._

Disclaimer: Once again, I continue to not own Harry Potter, his parents, his world, or any of his little friends. If I did, I would have to be J.K. Rowling, and then maybe my computer wouldn't be a doomsday device and I would actually be able to GET ONTO MSN.

* * *

When I finally grew up, I realized that I had been completely ignorant of everything that ever actually mattered.

If you grew up in a wizard home like me, you'll understand. Everything was magical, but when you're raised around magic, what makes it so special? I couldn't even imagine another way of living, so I guess I always took it for granted, until the day Lily Evans finally gave in and agreed to go on one date with me, ickle Jamesy Potter.

It was Lily who truly taught me the power of things I'd never really considered before, some things that weren't even "magical" at all. I'd always appreciated a hug from Mum and of course I enjoyed the times I spent with Moony, Wormtail, and Padfoot, but it wasn't until Lily that I started to really care about them all.

Lily showed me a new concept, one I'd never thought about before. She gave me magic . . . without magic. Which is why on that summer night, about fifty million times after our first, I was taking Lily on a special date. One that would be truly magical.

I sat in front of the wheel of the Bushwhacker 4X and gripped the wheel. It took me a while (shooting pains up your arms can be a good wakeup call) to realize that I was holding it so tight that they were about the colour of a full-grown unicorn (except less shiny). Unfortunately, when I attempted to release my hands, I found that I couldn't, due to the sudden paralysis that had overcome me.

I know that driving a convertible shouldn't be a horrific experience, but this was my first time driving without anyone in the front seat telling me when I was about to hit the car in front of me and should probably start slowing down. It was also my first time in the Bushwhacker, which, as it turns out, is ridiculously huge. So there I was, sitting in the coolest, biggest, reddest car in the entire world, looking like a complete pansy. I somehow managed to gain control of my eyeballs and checked the rear-view mirror, noticing how my muggle jumper and jeans really set off the greenish tinge in my face.

But now wasn't the time to panic. After a very deep breath, my hand somehow guided the keys into the ignition. Somehow, hearing the rumble of the engine made me a little bit calmer. I grinned at the boy in the mirror. He grimaced back.

On the upside, I thought as I pulled out onto the road, by the time she was in my car, my hair would be sufficiently ruffled.

I saw her face peer through the window, holding the curtain back just a bit to see, but I honked the horn twice anyway, because it just sounded so cool. Some seven seconds later (not that I was counting or anything) the door was flung open and she burst outside, beaming at the awesomeness that is my car. I couldn't understand how she managed to look so good, even dressed casually as I'd told her to. The green of her blouse matched those big, beautiful eyes, and her black cords fit her perfectly. Best of all, her gorgeous hair had been let down and loose, and she didn't seem at all afraid to let it get a little messy.

"Where. Did. You. Get that?!" she practically squealed.

"I have my sources." I winked. Shockingly, I'd actually gone out and bought it, but Lily didn't need to know that. "Hop in."

"I love you!" she cried, closing the passenger door. It was said jokingly, but she meant it, too. She meant it every time.

"I know."

You wouldn't think old people would object so much to loud music blasting from the radio in large vehicles. However, the bump growing steadily on the top of my head proved otherwise.

"I just can't believe anyone would do that!" Lily choked out, trying and failing to stifle some obvious laughter.

"Yeah, well, the joke's on her. Now she's lost a perfectly good shoe." I held up the left half of a pair of purple pumps. That's right. Some old lady'd thrown her sodding shoe at me.

We had pulled up in front of the restaurant, our centre of romantic dining this evening. Ah, McDonald's.

We ordered our food and took a seat, Lily glancing every which way at the packed room.

"Why McDonald's?" she asked, not in a judgemental way, just curious.

"Cheaper." I joked, taking a bite out of my Big Mac successfully without wincing (I'm not big on meat). A bit of ketchup slipped out and fell on my lap. The tiny boy at the next table giggled, and his sister, who looked no older than eight, nudged him, placing her pink princess book aside for a second.

"It's rude to stare," she scolded, forcing me to hide my own chuckles.

"That right there, that's the real reason. I love the kids."

At about that moment, a small green thing came sailing to our table. It hit the surface and flew right to my head, centimetres away from the Shoe Lump, where it bounced straight into my can of Coke, knocking the drink over so that it spilled everywhere, making Lily's Egg McMuffin into Egg McMush and rendering the napkins useless. Fortunately, none of it managed to get onto my date, although I was soon soaked.

The weapon of mass destruction turned out to be a little lime-covered rubber ball, which had come to a rest in the soggy mess that was my hamburger. I picked the sticky device out and scanned the crowd, which was pretty much made up of about a hundred watching eyes (except for the girl at the table next to us, because even such a ridiculous scene about two feet away from her could not have made her bend her principles), and my own came to rest on a very young fellow, who couldn't have been five years old. His face was filled with terror, his lower lip was trembling, and immediately I knew who claimed ownership of the toy.

In front of all the spectators, one of them my girlfriend, I walked up to the kid and knelt down so that we were at eye level. A tear ran down his face.

"You are my hero," I told him. "I only ever managed to get my mum in the face, and that was after ten years of practice."

I held out the ball and he took it, still terrified. But I grinned at him, which made him grin back, and my job thereafter was pretty much done, so I headed back to my seat to meet eyes with the lovely Lily.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be in the bathroom underneath the hand dryer. These pants are getting a little bit grotty."

I kissed my love on the cheek and headed off. Even the eight-year-old saw me go.

"Spun sugar has to be about the greatest creation of man."

Get out of your car; cotton candy is not now on the menu at McDonald's. After I had dried off a bit from the Rubber Ball Fest (although I couldn't actually get any stains out and I now looked like it was my time of the month), we'd found no real reason to stay at the restaurant, considering the state of our food at that point, so we hopped in the car (although this time Lily drove and we had turned "Walk This Way" down a bit to prevent more injury) and I gave Lily turn-by-turn directions to the next destination on the list of activities for the night. It didn't take long for us to end up at the candy stand at the local fair.

"I don't know," I countered, breaking off a piece from the cone we were sharing. "Man created those slacks you're wearing, and they're pretty fantastic."

Lily rolled her eyes and "smacked" me in the head. "Quit being James Potter."

"You know, that could be difficult."

She stuck her tongue out at me as I continued. "And why are you abusing a wounded man? I already have a very uneven head surface right now, you know." I pouted.

"Baby."

"I prefer 'Babe'."

With a toss of red hair, Lily grabbed my hand. "Whatever you say, Infant. Come on. Let's Ferris Wheel it up."

And we did. We Ferris Wheeled it up and Fun Housed it up and at one point we even Carouselled it up (which sort of wasn't allowed since the carousel was really meant for children under the age of twelve, but Lily protested that I was practically a twelve-year-old and the man working the gates let us have one ride).

"How did you think all of this up?" Lily asked me as we took a break in the metal spectator stands (placed around a large expanse for shows later) to devour another cone of cotton candy (not the healthiest choice, but our parents were nowhere in sight). "How do you always know exactly what I want?"

"I'm brilliant."

At that moment, a plump middle-aged woman walking down the steps with her very thin husband accidentally slipped, sliding down perilously so that her foot came in contact with the back of my head.

You never quite know what to do when a random woman is falling almost over you in the middle of the fairground, but we had to have been in about the twentieth row. The woman would have had a very long, painful fall.

Without thinking, I threw out my hand and grabbed at the nearest part of her that I could. Unfortunately, that actually turned out to be her hair, which really just caused a very loud scream. But it did help her to slow her descent a little bit so that I could take hold of her wrists. With Lily's help, I managed to get the horrified woman into upright position so that she was seated in the row in front of us.

The man she'd been with was almost instantly at her side. "Ethel!" he cried, his face paler than the sugar that was getting very sticky underneath the hot sun.

Ethel seemed to be in a state of extreme shock. She didn't move for a solid minute, and neither did we.

Finally, she broke out it. Without warning, she snatched up her husband's face and kissed it. Old People Snogging has never been my kind of thing, but I was willing to excuse her just this once.

"Oh my God, Aron, thank God, thank God, thank God."

"I was just thinking the same thing." This time, he kissed her.

After staring into Aron's eyes for a time, Ethel turned around and looked at us, a motherly smile upon her face. "While I don't appreciate the permanent damage you may have done to my scalp," I blushed a bit. "I am grateful to both of you for helping me."

"And I am, too." Aron nodded. "I don't know what I would do without Ethel."

"It wasn't anything anyone else wouldn't do." Lily spoke, since I was a bit stunned by everything and was having trouble performing normal human abilities. "Besides, James is the one who really helped out. I didn't clue in until it was almost too late."

This jolted me. "No way. You were just as helpful as me. You didn't nearly rip out anyone's hair."

"As I said, I'm grateful to both of you." Ethel repeated. "And James, I daresay I deserved it. I think I may have hit you in the head on my way down."

I grinned. "No problem. Things like that have been happening a lot, lately."

As the couple continued carefully down, hands tightly interlocked, Lily sighed. "Do you think we'll ever be anything like them?"

I looked at her. "I think there's cotton candy stuck to your mouth."

She "smacked" me again.

"No, really! Let me get it off for you." I kissed her softly on the lips.

"Delicious."

". . . so muggles would be able to listen to music whenever they wanted without having to make requests in the radio or anything, and they could take it anywhere! Uncle Joseph says it's just a matter of time."

I pushed one of the branches out of the way, holding it clear for Lily, who was talking about a muggle soon-to-be invention, the compact disc. Her uncle Joseph was a worker at a big company somewhere and had the inside scoop on all of the news.

I couldn't help but wonder if Joseph had Lily's eyes. I'd met her parents, but her mum had dark, chocolate brown eyes and her dad's were a silver-flecked blue. Her sister certainly didn't have them.

You really had to wonder . . . where did they come from?

"So you're saying," I puffed. "that we could annoy random old ladies with the dulcet tunes of Aerosmith at any time of the day, anywhere at all?"

"That's what I'm saying!" Lily agreed gleefully, and I pulled her through the last stretch of the muddy hill.

We had parked the car long ago in the middle of some dark, peaceful woods. I'd taken Lily through a half-hour hike, which was, for some odd reason, perfectly simple for her, even though it was practically impossible for me, especially since neither of us could really see much. At last, however, we had made it to the best part of the evening.

"Oh, James . . . it's beautiful."

Lily stared open-mouthed at the water on the cove, the little inlet that nobody knew about. The moonlight that made her face an eerie white shimmered and dancing on the water, calling out to us as it took the grains of sand, one by one, into its welcoming arms. We stayed far away from the shore, though.

"I wanted to do this here, with nobody around to see it except you." I said. "Because you, Lily, are all the audience anyone ever needed."

"Are you going to do a magic trick?" she teased, and I only smiled. Then I took it out.

"This was my grandmother's. It doesn't have any special powers and it's old and simple, but I want you to have it."

It was a small, silver jewellery box with two hearts intertwined. Inscribed on the lid were the words, "Together For Eternity". I knew Lily wanted to speak, but I put a finger to her lips and didn't yet hand over the box.

"And inside, Lily . . ." I took a breath and knelt down. On one knee. "Inside is something I have just for you."

I carefully opened the antique to show a small diamond ring. The moon played across the silver and I don't think I've ever seen anyone look so stunned.

"Lily Evans," Why couldn't I stop saying her name? "You are all that I am, ever was, and ever want to be. I love you more than I've ever loved anything or anyone else . . . even Quidditch. And to spend one more day without being guaranteed you with me for the rest of my life would be to die a thousand deaths. Lily . . . will you marry me?"

She looked at me. She looked at the water. She looked at the forest. I wish I could have just read her expression, which tends to save a lot of grief.

"That is such a . . . cheesy thing to say."

Okay, not the best reaction to popping the question.

"That is such a _James Potter _thing to say."

Excuse me while my heart shatters into a million pieces.

Lily stopped glancing around then and met my eyes, locking them in an unbreakable stare.

"And that's why I couldn't spend another day without you as my fiancé, either. James, of course I'll marry you!"

As she pulled me from the ground and I placed the ring on her perfect little finger, I swear I could hear crowds cheering maniacally. They only became louder when I took her lips to mine and we shared our most romantic kiss.

And as Lily stopped and stared into my eyes again, I could see something in those beautiful green ones of hers, something that I would never forget and always treasure.

I felt something inside me that had never been there before. And I knew, without a doubt, that here was the truest example of magic without magic.


End file.
